submitting a form on pageload

I had an issue where I needed to update 2 tables to mark them both as paid coming back from pay pal where I could not use the PayPal IPN process for various reasons and then wanted to return the user to their account page.

Although this solution may seem a bit clunky it worked for me.

What I did was create to update pages called pa_confirm_1.php & pay_confirm_2.php

For the url to go to on update for page 1 I sent it to page 2 and for page 2 sent it to the users account page which was based on a session variable. I assumed the session variable was valid because I sent the user to paypal via a new window which seems not to destroy the session needed and is still valid when the user clicks on the Return to Merchant Link shown after payment confirmation.

To accomplish this I used the <body onLoad="document.form1.submit()">

I did this because I did not want the user to have to click a submit button and I think it streamlines the process of confirming a payment better in the mysql tables.